it clear that women “had strong sexual desires and that it was

degrading and immoral to pretend otherwise.”

Emma Goldman believed marriage was a form of oppres-
sion and, despite having been married once, railed against it.
She found the whole concept of marriage to be degrading to
the power and beauty of love. She enjoyed sex with many part-
ners and refused to be ashamed of that fact. She spoke against
any laws that interfered with people and their love lives. She
supported homosexuals and unmarried women, called to make
divorce legal and easy, and fought for women to wear comfort-
able clothes. She was also a strong proponent of sex education.
She wrote dozens of pamphlets and translated the works of
others in various languages to spread the word about contra-
ception and how to have a fulfilling sex life. Emma went to jail
more for her free love advocacy than for her anarchist work.

These women and their ideas were not just outliers either.
They were just a small part of a large free love movement that
existed throughout the 19th century in the Western world,
and their ideas laid the groundwork for the sexual revolutions
that would occur throughout the 20th century.

. 122 .